Zechariah 6:6

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹And again I lifted up my eyes and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains-mountains of bronze. ²The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, ³the third white horses, and the fourth dappled horses-all of them strong. ⁴So I inquired of the angel who was speaking with me, "What are these, my lord?" ⁵And the angel told me, "These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from their station before the Lord of all the earth. ⁶The one with the black horses is going toward the land of the north, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south."⁷As the strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth; and the LORD said, "Go, patrol the earth." So they patrolled the earth. ⁸Then the LORD summoned me and said, "Behold, those going to the land of the north have given rest to My Spirit in the land of the north."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the north: Jeremiah 1:14, Jeremiah 1:15, Jeremiah 4:6, Jeremiah 6:1, Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 46:10, Jeremiah 51:48, Ezekiel 1:4

go forth after: Daniel 7:5, Daniel 7:6, Daniel 11:3, Daniel 11:4

toward: Daniel 11:5, Daniel 11:6, Daniel 11:9, Daniel 11:40

Reciprocal: Daniel 2:39 - another third Zechariah 1:8 - speckled Zechariah 6:2 - black Zechariah 6:3 - grisled Revelation 6:5 - a black

Cross-References

Genesis 6:8
Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Genesis 6:10
And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6:17
And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth, to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

Genesis 6:18
But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark-you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.

Exodus 32:14
So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

Deuteronomy 5:29
If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

Deuteronomy 32:29
If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

Deuteronomy 32:36
For the LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

1 Samuel 15:11
"I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions." And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The black horses which [are] therein,.... Which were in the second chariot: no further mention is made of the red horses in the first chariot, because the kingdom of the Chaldeans was now extinct: these design the Medes and Persians:

go forth into the north country: into the country of Babylon or Chaldea, which lay north of Judea; see Jeremiah 1:13 and other places; these went to Babylon, took that, and seized on the empire, and delivered the Jews, who were captives there:

and the white go forth after them; the Grecians under Alexander, who went after the Medes and Persians into the same country, and fought Darius the Persian, and conquered him:

and the grisled go forth toward the south country; the Romans under Julius Caesar, Augustus, and others before them, who went into Egypt, which lay south of Judea, Daniel 11:5 and conquered that, and other nations, and set up the fourth kingdom or monarchy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The black horses which are therein go forth - Literally, “That chariot wherein the black horses are, these go forth.” Jerome: “Most suitably is the first chariot, wherein the red homes were, passed over, and what the second, third, fourth did is described. For when the prophet related this, the Babylonian empire had passed, and the power of the Medes possessed all Asia.” Red, as the color of blood, represented Babylon as sanguinary; as it is said in the Revelation, “There went out another horse, red, and power was given to him that sat thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another, and there was given him a sharp sword” Revelation 6:4. “The black” were to go forth to the north country, the ancient title of Babylon. For Babylon, though taken, was far from being broken. They had probably been betrayed through the weakness of their king’s. Their resistance, in the first carefully prepared (Herodotus, iii. 150) revolt against Darius, was more courageous than that against Cyrus: and more desperate .

Since probably more Jews remained in it, than returned to their own country, what was to befall it had a special interest for them. They had already been warned in the third vision Zechariah 2:7 to escape from it. The color black doubtless symbolizes the heavy lot, inflicted by the Medo-Persians; as in the Revelation it is said, “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair” Revelation 6:12; and to the beast in Daniel’s vision which corresponded with it, it was said, “Arise, devour much flesh” Daniel 7:5; and in the Revelation, “he that sat on the black horse” Revelation 6:5-6 was the angel charged with the infliction of famine. Of the Medes, Isaiah had said, “I will stir up the Medes against them (Babylon), which shall not regard silver; and gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children” Isaiah 13:17-18.

The white went forth after them - For the Greek empire occupied the same portion of the earth as the Persian. White is a symbol of joy, gladness Ecclesiastes 9:8, victory Revelation 6:2, perhaps also, from its relation to light, of acute intelligence. It may relate too to the benevolence of Alexander to the Jewish nation. “Alexander used such clemency to the conquered, that it seemed as though he might be called rather the founder than the destroyer of the nations whom he subdued.”

And the grizzled - The Romans in their mingled character, so prominent in the fourth empire of Daniel, “go forth” Daniel 2:41-43 to the south country, that is, Egypt; as Daniel speaks of “the ships of Chittim” Daniel 11:30 and the intervention of the Romans first in regard to the expulsion of Antiochus Epiphanes from Egypt; in Egypt also, the last enduring kingdom of any successor of Alexander, that of the Ptolemies, expired. “30 years afterward, the Son of God was to bring light to the earth. The prophet so interweaves the prediction, that from the series of the four kingdoms it is brought to the Birth of the Eternal King” .

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 6:6. The black horses — This refers to the second chariot; of the first the angel makes no mention, because the empire designed by it had ceased to exist. This had red horses, to show the cruelty of the Chaldeans towards the Jews, and the carnage they committed in the land of Judea.

The black — Cyrus, at the head of the Persians and Medes, bringing devastation and death among the Chaldeans, called the north in many parts of Scripture.

The white — Alexander, who was splendid in his victories, and mild towards all that he conquered.

The grisled — The Lagidae or Ptolemies, who founded an empire in Egypt; of these some were good, some bad, some despotic, some moderate, some cruel, and some mild; represented by the party-coloured horses.